inFotouch

ICANN : ICANN board has voted to reject the sale of the .org registry to private equity firm Ethos Capital   —  Today, the ICANN Board made the decision to reject the proposed change of control and entity conversion request that Public Interest Registry (PIR) submitted to ICANN. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3f9JDN2

Monica Chin / The Verge : Reddit has disabled its chat room feature, Start Chatting, a day after launch due to “several errors” in rollout and moderators' concerns over lack of control   —  The company says the rollout had several errors  —  Remember how Reddit announced just yesterday that it was introducing built-in subreddit chat rooms? from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2WcIBHG

Aimee Chanthadavong / ZDNet : IDC: Global smartphone shipments dropped 11.7% YoY to 276M during Q1 2020, the largest YoY decline ever   —  Shipment volumes suffered its largest year over year decline in the first quarter.  —  The latest data from International Data Corporation (IDC) has revealed that as the world grapples … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/35miL8a

Benjamin Romano / The Seattle Times : Amazon tells its Seattle and Bellevue employees already working from home since early March that they “are welcome to do so until at least October 2”   —  Amazon told its corporate employees working from home since early March that they “are welcome to do so until at least October 2 … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3bUN6x9

Joseph Cox / VICE : The UN's social distancing app, 1point5, is largely ineffective at monitoring distance between people, indiscriminately picking up any Bluetooth signals   —  This week a division of the United Nations announced its new social distancing app designed to help alert people when they get too close … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2YlUOfJ

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch : Walmart is piloting a 2-hour “Express” grocery delivery service for an extra $10 fee; plans to expand to 1K stores in May, using its 74K+ “personal shoppers”   —  Record usage of grocery delivery services amid the COVID-19 pandemic has led to delayed orders … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2VPbaMe

Bobbie Johnson / MIT Technology Review : Pandemic conspiracy theories are being spread using Wayback Machine links of content already discredited by fact-checkers and even deleted   —  Pandemic conspiracy theorists are using the Wayback Machine to promote “zombie content” that evades moderators and fact-checkers. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2z1HClK

Jonathan Vanian / Fortune : Nexar, which makes AI-based software for car dashboard cameras, raises $52M Series C, source says at a valuation of $272M, bringing its total raised to $100M   —  Nationwide Insurance, GE, and Samsung's venture capital arm have invested $52 million in Nexar, a maker of software that alerts drivers … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2SmwSoI

Les Pounder / Tom's Hardware : Raspberry Pi announces a new $50 camera board with a 12MP Sony sensor and support for interchangeable lenses   —  Great flexibility and resolution make the Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera a winner.  —  OUR VERDICT  —  With interchangeable lenses and a 12-MP sensor, the Raspberry Pi High … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2z09w1u

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch : Material Bank, a marketplace for architectural and design samples, raises $28M Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures   —  Material Bank, a logistics platform for the architectural and design industry, has announced the close of a $28 million Series B financing today, led by Bain Capital Ventures. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2y5Rnzc

Alex Konrad / Forbes : Design software startup Figma raises $50M Series D led by Andreessen Horowitz at a $2B valuation   —  Covering venture capital, software and startups  —  Figma CEO Dylan Field has enjoyed watching his design software take off in bizarre ways in recent weeks. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/35i2rFv

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge : Motorola Edge Plus review: top-tier specs, good camera, solid battery life, but it's not waterproof, edge display has issues, and it's Verizon exclusive   —  When great just isn't good enough  —  After years mainly spent in the midrange phone market, Motorola burst back into the spotlight … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3f7ZWtE

Anna Baydakova / CoinDesk : Telegram postpones the launch of its TON blockchain for a second time, pushing the go-live date to April 2021, and offers to return $1.2B to investors   —  Messaging app Telegram postponed the launch of its TON blockchain for a second time on Wednesday, pushing the new go-live date to April 2021 … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3aPzZvP

TrendForce : Global smartphone production in Q1 fell by 10% YoY to ~280M, the lowest in five years, and is estimated to drop by 16.5% YoY to ~287M in Q2   —  - TrendForce has revised down its forecast of yearly smartphone production volume to 1.24 billion units, an 11.3% decrease YoY, given weakening end-product demand. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2VOjA6o

Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech : Intel launches flagship 10th-gen Comet Lake desktop CPUs with 10 cores based on its Skylake architecture; the $488 Core i9-10900K CPU can reach 5.3GHz   —  Today we get the full range of its Intel's 10th Generation processors for desktops.  These chips, which fall under the banner of ‘Comet Lake’ … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3bUa9rG

Nicole Wetsman / The Verge : Supply chain algorithms used by companies like Walmart and Amazon, which rely on past data to forecast demand, have been completely upended by the pandemic   —  The data the algorithms use isn't reliable  —  Even during a pandemic, Walmart's supply chain managers have to make sure stores … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2WaZX7M

Sam Nussey / Reuters : SoftBank says it sees a loss of ~$6.6B in the year ending March on its WeWork investment held outside the Vision Fund, extending its expected net loss to $8.4B   —  TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) said it sees a loss of around 700 billion yen ($6.6 billion) … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2SjxOdC

Taylor Lyles / The Verge : Facebook rolls out a tool that lets users in the US and Canada transfer their photos and videos to Google Photos as part of the Data Transfer Project   —  Facebook launched the tool in Ireland last year  —  Facebook is rolling out a new tool today allowing users in the US and Canada to transfer … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2KLzokj

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch : Twitter reports Q1 sales up 3% YoY to $808M as it swings to a net loss of $8M due to COVID-19, mDAUs hit record 166M, up 24% YoY   —  Despite traffic for many online properties being at an all-time high, advertising has fallen off a cliff because of the downturn in consumer activity outside … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3bPRopj

Tom Krazit / Protocol : Wall Street has been slow to shift to the cloud, using mainframes until recently, but issues like handling spikes in demand amid COVID-19 may change that   —  Financial services companies were skeptical of cloud computing's benefits and wouldn't hand over control of their data.  But the pressure is rising. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2VQWaxt

Tom Warren / The Verge : Zoom admits it doesn't have 300M DAUs, quietly correcting a misleading claim in its original blog post, which now says 300M “daily Zoom meeting participants”   —  Zoom quietly updated a blog post earlier this month  —  Zoom has admitted it doesn't have 300 million daily active users. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2WbkLvL

Dan Primack / Axios : Andreessen Horowitz raises $515M for second fund dedicated to cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies   —  Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has raised $515 million for its second fund dedicated to cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.  —  Strategy: Like its $300 million predecessor … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2xlmlTv

Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker : Q&A with EU's antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager on virus tracking apps and privacy, her disagreements with Elizabeth Warren about regulating big tech, and more   —  “She hates the United States perhaps worse than any person I've ever met.”  This was President Trump's assessment of Margrethe Vestager … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2zJJgZu

Paayal Zaveri / Business Insider : Salesforce is moving all of its events in 2020 online, including Dreamforce, which drew over 170K attendees in 2019, contributing $150M+ to the SF economy   —  - Salesforce is cancelling all its events for the rest of 2020 and making them virtual, including its annual Dreamforce conference. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2KNYfUl

New York Times : Dozens of tracking apps for smartphones are being used or developed to help contain the pandemic, despite concerns about security, privacy, and effectiveness   —  Dozens of tracking apps for smartphones are being used or developed to help contain the coronavirus pandemic. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2W9KW6a

Zach Edwards : Researcher: major sites like Wish and Mailchimp were leaking email addresses to ads and analytics companies including Facebook and Twitter via URL query strings   —  Breaches have been found on websites including Wish.com, JetBlue.com, Quibi.com, WashingtonPost.com, NGPVan.com and numerous other organizations... from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3aRcqTa